Chef Wayne Lyons: ‘Chopped’ champion is a soul food extraordinaire
theGRIO REPORT - Chef Wayne Lyons is best known for his soul food creations and winning Food Network’s Chopped Season 7...
Chef Wayne Lyons is best known for his soul food creations and winning the Food Network’s Chopped Season 7.
The father of two is owner of the popular Jersey City restaurant Soul Flavors, where he is also the head chef.
Chef Wayne told theGrio his fascination with food started back when he was just 9 years old.
“My first time I ever prepared anything was for international school day at the elementary school. I prepared crepes,” he said with a smile. “They were a big hit.”
Trying new and different things
Once his interest in cooking was sparked, Wayne was inspired to try new things.
“On the occasion that we went out to restaurants, I would try to recreate what we tasted out there.”
“My aunt was a home-EC teacher, so she had a lot of cook books,” Wayne shared. “I would go through her cookbooks and try different things. I’ve always enjoyed it.”
Growing up in Hollis Queens, Wayne cites his parents’ Caribbean background and the Southern families in his neighborhood as the biggest influences on his cooking style.
“I didn’t have money to travel, but I’d be able to travel through food and cookbooks. So I became interested in other cuisines as well,” Wayne said. “But definitely Southern and Caribbean, that’s my roots. ”
“I like to create”
The Caribbean and Southern influences are easily noticed when looking at Soul Flavors’ menu.
The downtown restaurant offers specialties ranging from cornbread and biscuits to jerk salmon and even buttermilk marinated fried chicken and waffle, one of their most popular dishes.
Chef Wayne doesn’t shy away from trying new things. “I like to create,” he said while explaining the sous-vide method of cooking.
“Basically you cook something in a vacuum sealed bag at a very low temperature, 140 degrees. I’m cooking mila-glazed pork ribs, baby-back pork ribs. I’ve been cooking them since yesterday. So you cook them for about 24-48 hours depending. And when I tell you these things are like so tender that they fall off the bone.”
On the topic of being one of the Food Network’s Chopped champions, Wayne said, “it was a great experience.”
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